52. I have a little son like a wanton goat; my daughter is like an unfledged eaglet; they shall get them fins, that they may swim.53. That they may swim, O my beloved, swim far in the warm honey of Thy being, O blessed one, O boy of beatitude!

Within the scribe, or Master, there is a part of being that is “wanton”, without care or motive and possibly promiscuous. Also, an eagle without wings mature enough for flight. In short, there are parts of the self that are undeveloped and unfocused. The commentary states the boy is likely the Ruach and the daughter is likely the Nephesch. These both are given a means to move through the ocean of honey (the sweet part of the Angel?) via fins.

We start from an undeveloped and unfocused state of being. In our aspirations and evolution we can grow and transform into something we didn’t see before or know was possible. The transformation here seems to conclude in a joyous gliding movement through the sweet honey of the Angel.

“They” shall get them fins (the boy and girl?) – which means they have the ability to obtain a means for the transformation or at least starting the process it seems. I could understand and take the concepts of focus and transformation from this today – the gliding in the sweetness of the Angel will have to be an aspiration only for now!

52. I have a little son like a wanton goat; my daughter is like an unfledged eaglet; they shall get them fins, that they may swim.

For a chapter about fire it sure has a lot of water in it. Of course, it's fire, but more significantly Netzach, qualifying that fire...

I know there is a very profound notion about the relationship of water to fire here, I can feel it, but like a dream that is not recoded immediately on waking I cannot say exactly what it is.

Beyond this I am struck by the notion of adaptation: the goat, a creature of earth, and a fledgling eagle, an animal fitted to fly in the air are presented as evolving other organs that will allow them to function in another environment. The simplest association I have is that the body is the goat, and the eagle is the mind. And water, by definition, is reflective.

So the sentiment may be that the lower vehicles will be able to reflect the higher experience, not so much to show it forth, but to participate, swim, inside of it. These lower parts of the soul do not dissolve, they just live inside of it and are benefited by it? In any event it is a good and pleasurable thing to do, possibly even salutary.

The whole takes the form of a prophecy, not unlike those from other religions concerning the renewal of the earth—the descent of the new Jerusalem, the assumption of the physical body in its reconstructed perfection into heaven...

Love and Will

"I remember seeing Atlas looking at a world whose hoops and rings had been broken by Copernicus, where Tycho Brahe placed his back beneath the globe, and a shouting Ptolemy tried to support the round lump, to stop it from falling into the void. In the mean time Copernicus was breaking many crystal spheres that were placed around the globe and was stamping out the little lights that flickered in the crystal jars." (de Hooghe, Hieroglyphica, Amsterdam, 1744)

This passage seems the best actual visualization, the most practical part for the particular practice summarized above: Visualize yourself swimming serenely through warm honey - golden-amber, translucent light, a slight thickness, essence of sweetness, nurturing and nutritious - all of these ideas - serene in the embrace of the essence of the heart (Tiphereth) of the Holy Guardian Angel, the "boy of beatitude."

The task of the Adeptus Minor is to attain to the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel and then to abide therein. The task of the other Adept Grades (whatever their seeming outer divergence)boil down to deepening and strengthening that union. This verse speaks of that actuality.

52. I have a little son like a wanton goat; my daughter is like an unfledged eaglet; they shall get them fins, that they may swim.

The first verse of the two is more intellectual-dogmatic, but inspection of it helps a bit to set the expectations of one's progress. The son and daughter are Vav and Heh-final, the lower aspects of the psyche. As goat and eaglet, they represent A'ayin and Nun, thus showing the extension of these down from Tiphereth. They have various marks of immaturity, under-development, short-comings. Yet the Adept, speaking from the place in Tiphereth, declares that these faculties shall grow what they need in order to join the rest of the psyche in the sea described in v. 53.